American's are all abuzz about green technologies, green jobs, and going green. Let's take a look at what that really means. Conservation means many things to many people: preservation, restoration, protection, and being frugal.

What is Environmental Conservation?

The word "conserve" means to maintain, preserve, protect, and according to Mirriam Webster, "to avoid wasteful or destructive use of."

Avoiding wasteful use of our planet's natural resources sounds like a noble cause, but what does that mean?

Why We Should Conserve Water

The planet Earth gets no new significant amounts of water from outer space. The amount of water on the planet is finite, never increasing and never depleting. See this image for a great visual of the water cycle.

What is important about water is clean water for drinking and cooking. Humans and all living beings need water to live, it's a basic necessity for life. If the water is contaminated by human activity, then it needs to be filtered or we could become a very sick race and we could die. This applies to other animals and plants, as well, as we are all interconnected in the food chain.

Invasive species disrupts the ecosystems of Minnesota lakes

Why We Should Preserve Wildlife

It's fun to delight in the birds we feed in the back yard. It's fun to watch the dog chase the squirrels. It's exciting to see deer in the forest while camping.

More important than reconnecting with nature and enjoying the wildlife, though, is our dependence on animals for our survival.

Every animal, every plant takes part in an ecosystem that we are dependent on for survival. The food chain affects us. We eat fish, most people eat meat, we need food to survive. 

Why We Should Protect Land and Soil

If the soil is depleted or contaminated, how safe is it to eat the plants grown in it? Even meat eaters need plants--vegetables and fruits--for survival.

Author's Backyard Garden

Saving our forests is not just for tree-hugging nature lovers. Preserving the land and the soil in our communities means protecting the ecosystem upon which we depend for survival.

Why We Should Care About Clean Air

Do your children have asthma? If you work in the medical field or are an educator, you have no doubt noticed the dramatic increase in asthma and allergy cases in the younger generation. Even people who do not suffer from COPD, asthma or other breathing problems need clean air.

We all need clean air to breathe. We need air to survive.

Air, like water, is an essential element for life on this planet.

The environmentalists are not anti-corporation, necessarily. They are pro clean air, water, soil and union with nature.  The environmentalists simply cry for cleaner air, water, and soil so that we leave a legacy to the children to be able to survive and thrive on this planet.

Some say that God did not give mankind dominion over the planet so that we can rape and pillage the resources, but rather so that we can exercise good stewardship of its resources and abundance.